Session 5: Engaging and Motivating Context to Teach Comprehension

Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade Practice Guide:

Recommendation 5: Establish an engaging and motivating context in which to teach reading comprehension.

  • Help students discover the purpose and benefits of reading.
  • Create opportunities for students to see themselves as successful readers.
  • Give students reading choices.
  • Give students the opportunity to learn by collaborating with their peers.

 

Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices:

Recommendation 4: Increase student motivation and engagement in literacy learning.

  • Establish meaningful and engaging content learning goals around the essential ideas of a discipline as well as around the specific learning processes used to access those ideas.
  • Provide a positive learning environment that promotes student autonomy in learning.
  • Make literacy experiences more relevant to student interests, everyday life, or important current events.
  • Build classroom conditions to promote higher reading engagement and conceptual learning

 

Materials

 

Define Session Goals

  • Understand how to help students discover the purpose and benefits of reading.
  • Provide opportunities for students to see themselves as successful readers.
  • Understand how to give students reading choices.
  • Provide students the opportunity to learn by collaborating with their peers.

 

Learn About the Recommendation and How-to Steps

Recommendations from the practice guides for grades K-3 and adolescents are similar, and Recommendation 4 from the Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention practice guide support Recommendation 5 from the Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. This session will address the “how-to” steps from Recommendation 5 of the K-3 practice guide. Activities apply to grades K-12. You may wish to review pages 26-30 of the Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices with teachers of older students.

The practice guide states that students must actively engage with text to extract and construct meaning, and they will become better readers if they are taught reading comprehension in an engaging and motivating context. It’s important that you are intentional about establishing an engaging and motivating context in your classroom. Let’s explore the 4 how-to steps that can support establishing an engaging and motivating context now.

  1. Help students discover the purpose and benefits of reading.
  2. Create opportunities for students to see themselves as successful readers.
  3. Give students reading choices.
  4. Give students the opportunity to learn by collaborating with their peers.

Take 10 minutes to read about the 4 how-to steps on pages 35–38. Allow enough time for participants to read pages 35–38.

 

Collaborate

1. Understand how to help students discover the purpose and benefits of reading.

It’s important to model how the ability to read affects our daily life, provides enjoyment, and helps students learn about the world. Using examples of how reading affects your life, work, and leisure time can be especially interesting and motivating for students. Here are just a few examples of how to help students discover the purpose and benefits of reading.

  • Read a variety of content-rich texts, including fairy tales, realistic literature, information books, chapter books, biographies, poems, and joke and riddle books.
  • Connect reading to hands-on activities related to a theme.
  • Relate a new text to others that students have already read and enjoyed.
  • Create a literacy center with a variety of writing supplies to encourage students to share their thinking about books they have read. Let’s use a think-pair-share. Take a minute to think about ways in which you help your students discover the purpose and benefits of reading. Then, tell your colleague two specific things that you do. Allow participants about 5 minutes to discuss. Then ask for participants to share as you (or a designee) types/writes a list of responses. At the end of the session, you will have a long list of ideas to share with the group.

2. Create opportunities for students to see themselves as successful readers.

Here are just a few examples of creating opportunities for students to see themselves as readers.

  • Ensure that comprehension activities are challenging but realistic.
  • Help students recognize and learn from errors.
  • Use effective questioning techniques (e.g., ask why and how questions) to scaffold student thinking.
  • Help students set goals and monitor their own progress.
  • Provide frequent positive feedback as students’ comprehension improves.

What is an example of what you do in your classroom to create opportunities for students to see themselves as successful readers? Call on several volunteers to share as you (or a designee) types/writes a list of responses. At the end of the session, you will have a long list of ideas to share with the group.

3. Understand how to give students reading choices.

Reading choices should align with the instructional purpose. Here are some examples of giving students reading choices.

  • Allow students to choose from a variety of reading activities or centers.
  • Provide a variety of types of print, such as newspapers, magazines, and brochures.
  • Include books in students’ native languages.
  • Showcase many books by arranging them so that the covers are visible, especially those that are new, shared in read-aloud sessions, or theme-related.
  • Organize books on shelves within easy reach of students and have a simple system to check out and return books.
  • Provide a record-keeping system for keeping track of books read that may include a coding system to rate books.
  • Have a listening center for books that are recorded.
  • Create a variety of inviting places to read like a corner with pillows, a rug, or a beanbag.

What are examples of how you give your students reading choices? Call on several volunteers to share as you (or a designee) types/writes a list of responses. At the end of the session, you will have a long list of ideas to share with the group.

4. Provide students the opportunity to learn by collaborating with their peers.

The panel recommends that in order for collaborative activities to be productive, students should perceive their role as valuable and teachers should motivate students to help their peers learn rather than simply giving peers the answer. Here are a few examples of providing students opportunities to learn by collaborating with their peers.

  • Encourage students to read to and with classmates, younger students, or other adults at school.
  • Pair students strategically so that struggling readers read and discuss a text with a more proficient reader. Guide students in how to provide constructive feedback.
  • Have students work in partners or mixed-ability groups to discuss texts using guiding questions or complete graphic organizers.

What are examples of how you provide students the opportunity to learn by collaborating with peers? Call on several volunteers to share as you (or a designee) types/writes a list of responses. At the end of the session, you will have a long list of ideas to share with the group.

 

Reflect and Next Steps

Let’s reflect on this recommendation using Activity 5.1: Reflection on My Motivating and Engaging Context. Answer the reflection questions about how your current practices reflect the how-to steps for this recommendation and what you might do to enhance them to meet the needs of students.

Allow 5 minutes for participants to complete the activity independently. Then, ask for several volunteers to share their thoughts. If the group is large, participants can pair up to discuss and then ask a few to share with the whole group.

  1. What are some things I did not know before reading about this recommendation?
  2. Here’s what I’ll do to improve what I’m doing to help my students and mirror some of the suggestions outlined in the recommendation.
  3. What is the most important thing for me to remember about this recommendation?

Keep in mind that you will develop and deliver a series of lessons as a culminating project at the end of this course. Consider including what we have discussed today in your lessons. Your instruction will demonstrate the knowledge and skills gained from our PLC sessions.

Thank you for participating in today’s PLC session about establishing an engaging and motivating context for comprehension instruction!